


anytime for you, cinderella

by karasunotsubasa



Series: bubble bubble toil and trouble [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, First Meetings, M/M, Modern witches au, fairytales in disguise, this one's for cinderella
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 05:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12742326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karasunotsubasa/pseuds/karasunotsubasa
Summary: How it all started.





	anytime for you, cinderella

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this thing last december so yes it's almost a year old and I haven't had the time or strength to edit it so you can see a raw example of how much my writing has improved since then wELP hope you still enjoy it aaaaand....
> 
> ...HAPPY BIRTHDAY KUROO MY LOVE!!!!!

Tetsurou adored witch conventions ever since he was a small child. Back when he used to hold onto his mom's hand in order not to get lost in the crowd, he looked around with eyes full of wonder. Everything was shiny, sparkling, new and exciting. It's been years since then, but his eyes were still bright as he took in all the magic hanging in the air with that distinct static that made small goosebumps form on his arms. The big clearing in the forest nearby Tokyo, where the conventions took place biannually, was often times used as training grounds for sports clubs from all around the city, but that night, on the night of summer solstice, it had nothing to do with something as mundane as sports.

The night was dark and mystical, as if the nature itself was feeling in tune with the magic. The stars hid behind the smoky clouds, but the huge bonfire in the middle of the crowd chased the darkness away, warming up everyone with its gentle flames. Sparks, like fireflies, were shooting off in all directions, soon turning into gray snowflakes and falling to the ground covered in a carpet of green grass. The area was lit with fairy lights and paper lanterns, which floated over the heads of the witches gathered there. Around the clearing, at the edges and before the tree line, countless of stands were prepped for the viewing and buying pleasure of those interested. Drinks were offered at some of them, food at a few others and before the moon rose fully, Tetsurou had already stuffed his face with his favourite deep-fried bat wings.

People from all around the country came to this convention, not only because it was a solstice, but also because the summer convention was the biggest party in the witch world. And since Tetsurou's family was one of the purest witch bloodlines around these parts, he could recognize a lot of familiar faces that he'd had the pleasure or displeasure to meet before. There were Ushijimas somewhere on the other side of the clearing, Oikawas talking to his parents by the cauldron stand, and Tetsurou thought he glimpsed his former friend, now arch-nemesis, Suguru, but the snake bastard was disappearing between the trees with some girl, his face shadowed, so Tetsurou couldn't be sure it was really him or just his imagination playing tricks.

Amongst them all, there were also the unfamiliar faces – those who came for the first time and those that weren't from pure blooded families and which Tetsurou didn't have a chance to meet. He honestly preferred their presence to that of those uptight aristocrats, who believed they were better than everyone else. Even his own parents thought that way and frankly, Tetsurou wasn't inclined to spend a moment longer with them than it was absolutely necessary and always sneaked off to make new friends, friends who never knew the meaning behind his name.

Which brought him to this moment now, when he was veering through the crowd of unknown people, unnoticed and anonymous, a glass of steaming mandrake tea in hand. He was peaceful like this, happy even. He had the freedom to make his own choice what to do and when to do it, and that's all he ever wanted.

Suddenly, he stopped at the sound of laughter coming from the bonfire. It carried over, loud and happy and Tetsurou grinned to himself. This was the kind of people he wanted to be around on a night like this. He made his way over, guided by the sound of laughter, that was accompanied by some clapping and even more laughter. What he found once he spotted the source of it took his breath away for just a moment.

By the fire stood a young man, probably younger than Tetsurou himself, but not much. Or at least Tetsurou guessed so, because judging by the looks he couldn't be older than fifteen. The guy was tiny, small frame, short, almost petite, but his eyes glowed a fierce golden, intimidatingly bright even from that far away. There was a bright smile on his face, spreading his flushed cheeks wide, and Tetsurou felt himself smiling as well. The joy oozing from the man was infectious. He looked like the personification of happiness, like a pixie, when he played with the licks of flames that he stole from the bonfire behind him. He juggled them in his hands, laughing carelessly as if it took no effort to control the burning fire in the air and make it bend to his will. Around him sat a group of children, watching with awe how skilfully he jumped around with the flames following his hands as if on strings.

Tetsurou himself would have stared in admiration, but his eyes caught the sight of the man's hair and for a brief second he froze in panic. The orange of the flames played on it and while the guy was in the middle of a jump, Tetsurou's body reacted on its own. It took all of a second to take out his focus crystal and summon a bucket of water which he then unceremoniously dumped on the poor guy's head.

The squeak that left his mouth would've been funny if Tetsurou wasn't panicking. The flames around the man disappeared when he lost control over his spell, returning to the bonfire instead of dropping down on the kids and Tetsurou breathed a little easier. He rushed over, pocketing his golden cat's eye back safely. The other stood still, blinking in surprise and spluttering as he tried to get his wet hair out of his face.

"Are you okay?" Tetsurou asked, but now that he was standing next to the guy, he could clearly see his mistake. " Holy patron of the witches, it's your hair."

"What?"

The golden eyes that looked up at him were confused and the longer Tetsurou stared into them, fighting off shame and figuring how to explain it all and not turn out to be a jerk, the more he realized that they weren't golden at all. They were amber, the soft kind of brown that burned bright and gold in the sun. Tetsurou was so busy gazing into their depths that he didn't even hear the man talk until the eyes he was gawking at squinted in amusement.

"What?" Tetsurou asked, blinking.

There was a small snicker and Tetsurou realized the tiny guy was laughing at him. He scowled.

"I asked," the flame-man repeated, "if you're the one that dumped the water over me."

"Ah, um, about that," Tetsurou fumbled for words, looking away as his cheeks stung a bit with a treacherous flush. With relief he noticed that the kids around them were leaving, bored, now that the performance was over. He swallowed with difficulty, and scratching his neck in embarrassment, said: "I thought your hair was on fire, sorry."

There was a moment of silence and Tetsurou honestly thought he'd be hexed for what he'd done, but to his surprise the only response to his words was another bout of adorable laughter. Looking down at the laughing man, Tetsurou could see the way his nose scrunched up when helpless chuckles left his mouth, the way white teeth flashed in the fire light, the way amber eyes shut in amusement, and he found his heart speeding off somewhere he had no control over.

"You're cute," the man finally said once his laughter died down. He wiped tears of mirth from his eyes and grinned at Tetsurou, who once again could feel heat burst out on his cheeks. "Dry me up?"

Without hesitating, Tetsurou plucked his cat's eye from his pocket and with a quick spell, a whoosh of wind and a sneeze – what the hell that was _so adorable_ – from the flame guy, it was done. The fluffy mop of bright orange hair was dancing with flames again and Tetsurou pouted.

"Your hair really looks like it's on fire, come on," he complained. "Anyone could make that mistake."

The man snorted, glancing up at Tetsurou. "Sure, sure."

"My name's Kuroo Tetsurou, by the way." Tetsurou offered his hand and a small one, so tiny in his grasp he had to stifle the urge to coo, grabbed his in a handshake. When the amber eyes didn't glaze over with recognition, Tetsurou's heart leaped with relief. Maybe they could be friends.

"Hinata Shouyou," the flame guy introduced himself with a smile. "It's my first time here, actually, but I didn't know that soaking other people was a custom."

Tetsurou groaned. "I said I'm sorry, what else do you want?"

"How about you give me a tour?" Shouyou grinned at him. "I might consider forgiving you then."

And Tetsurou grinned back, because he'd love nothing more.

They spent almost the whole night together, walking around and talking. Shouyou was bursting with energy, his eyes wide open and swallowing everything in sight with the curiosity Tetsurou remembered very well from when he was a child. The man's mouth never stopped moving and he found it pleasantly surprising that he didn't mind the constant chatter. There was something about Shouyou that sparked interest in Tetsurou, or maybe it was just the magic of the night, he couldn't tell. But he enjoyed himself, far more than he would with his parents, so when Shouyou smiled and pulled on his arm, he smiled back and went along.

From Shouyou's blabbering, Tetsurou learned that he was twenty (which came as quite a shock because he didn't look it _at all_ ), the first witch in his family ever since his great-grandmother, a brother to a younger sister, and that his best friend was spouting a permanent scowl on his face. Shouyou had just moved into town recently and this was his first convention, which made him hyper excited. Everything was a wonder to him – he stopped at the stand with brooms, telling Tetsurou how much he'd love to fly but couldn't afford a broom; or at the stand with crystal balls, putting his hands on one and summoning an inferno of flames inside it, sparkling and beautiful, which Tetsurou doused with a wave of water by putting a finger on the ball; or at the menagerie, where Shouyou pet all the cats and they swarmed around him like moths drawn to light, as if they could feel his energy and wanted to steal at least a little of it for themselves.

For a second there, Tetsurou felt like one of those moths as well. He was drawn in by Shouyou's laughter, captured by his eyes, and held captive by his cheerful personality. And worst of all, he didn't want to free himself from this tiny guy's snares at all. He was quite content there, smiling and having fun and watching Shouyou experience this wondrous world for the first time.

Since Shouyou's family wasn't following the witch customs and he wasn't a pureblood, Shouyou had never seen or tasted the food or drinks that were traditional in every witch's cooking, so Tetsurou took him over to the stand with snacks. Not subtly at all, he pushed him to get the bat wings and amused by the concentrated frown on Shouyou's face, watched him dig in.

"Crunchy," Shouyou commented, still chewing on a wing, his fingers glistening with oil. "Would be better with some dressing, maybe something salty."

Tetsurou only grinned. "Wait a second."

He disappeared for a moment and when he returned, he was holding a small bowl of dip. He handed it to Shouyou without a word and watched the other put on some of the creamy substance. The wing disappeared in Shouyou's mouth and–

"Oh wow, what is this?"

Amber eyes were glazed over in delight and Tetsurou's grin widened.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked, watching Shouyou's eyes narrow at him in thought. Then that beautiful, infectious laughter filled his ears again.

Shouyou shook his head, chuckling. "You're right, I don't wanna know. Probably some frog intestines or crow liver or anything just as pleasant."

Tetsurou said nothing, smiling mysteriously at his new friend, who continued squinting at him in suspicion for a while. But then he just shrugged, mumbled "As long as it tastes good," and dug back into his food.

"Come on, let's grab some seats," Tetsurou said while Shouyou was munching on the wings. "There's gonna be a little show in a few minutes."

There was a moment of stilled silence when Shouyou froze, his eyes widening in panic. He looked at Tetsurou with desperate alarm and Tetsurou could feel his own body freeze, as if in response to Shouyou's fear. As suddenly Shouyou had stopped moving, he started again, pushing the wings into Tetsurou's hand and frantically reaching into his pockets, cursing under his breath simultaneously. Tetsurou watched it, partially amused, partially worried, until Shouyou fished out a watch.

A single glance at the time was enough to make him curse again, even more obscenely than before.

"I'm so sorry, Kuroo," Shouyou said in a rush. "I have to go, I left a potion brewing and if I don't get to it on time my lab will blow up. Dear lord, I need to go, I'm sorry, bye!"

And with that he was slipping past Tetsurou, who stood there blinking dumbly and holding the half-eaten bat wings in his hand. He didn't even manage a word of goodbye, didn't ask Hinata for any contact information. By the time he unfroze, Hinata was gone and Tetsurou was left alone in the middle of the crowd, feeling like he was played by a fae. He snapped out of it when the sound of a gong coursed through the clearing, but as he was turning around to face the bonfire, his eye caught a sparkle of green on the ground.

It couldn't be–

But it was. Right beside his foot, innocently resting in the grass, was an emerald the size of his fist. Now, if it was any normal rock, Tetsurou wouldn't have paid it any attention. This one, though, it couldn't be anything else other than Shouyou's focus crystal.

Tetsurou picked it up carefully. The emerald darkened as if it could feel that Tetsurou was not its owner and it refused to lend him its power, not that Tetsurou wanted it anyway. He looked around quickly, trying to spot Shouyou's bright orange mop of hair, but the crowd was thick and Shouyou was small... He was gone.

The stone weighted heavily in Tetsurou's hand.

A witch without a focus crystal wasn't able to do magic. A witch without a focus crystal was not a witch.

Locking his fingers around the cold surface, he promised himself and the stone that he will find Hinata again. Whatever it took.

 

***

 

It's been a two weeks and he was slowly losing hope. Compared to normal folk, there weren't a lot of witches in Tokyo, but even in that small community finding a single owner of bright orange hair who wielded an emerald and went by the name no one recognized, was harder than Tetsurou had anticipated. He'd searched all the major labs in town, asking around everyone he could, but no one gave him any answers. For all he knew, Hinata Shouyou didn't exist and Tetsurou had been, indeed, fooled by a fae.

Except he wasn't. Fae didn't use crystals. And Hinata needed his. So Tetsurou clung to that thought and refused to cave.

But even with his mind set, it was hard to find any clues alone, which was why Tetsurou resolved to seek help from one of his best friends. If anyone could figure something out, it'd be Kenma. Maybe he could get the ambient magic of the crystal to cooperate, or simply point in Hinata's direction – anything would do at this time.

Hopeful and a great deal desperate, Tetsurou made it to the lab that Kenma used with two other witches. He took the stairs down to the basement, pushed the door and entered the long hall with multiple doors on both sides. The one he was heading for was almost at the end, large rusty numbers spelling out 268. Before he could knock, or open it for that matter, he head the sounds of crying from behind the metal door. Putting his ear to the cold surface, Tetsurou listened in.

"–never gonna do magic again," someone was saying, the voice thick with tears. "I'm such an idiot, Akaashi-san..."

There were sounds of sniffling and a few hiccups before a much deeper, calmer voice replied.

"We'll help you look for it," it said and something clicked in Tetsurou's head. Maybe... Maybe he'd found exactly what he was looking for...

"Just calm down for now, Hinata," the voice said again and Tetsurou's heart jumped at the familiar name. It thumped in his chest, with nervous excitement, and Tetsurou couldn't hold back a grin. "Stop crying and we'll try some spells together, okay? Maybe a summoning ritual will work."

Without waiting any longer, Tetsurou pushed open the metal door, leaning against the frame. Everyone's attention was on him, but Tetsurou's was focused solely on the tiny man he'd met on the summer convention. The bright orange hair looked as fluffy as ever, but that was about all the similarities between then and now. Because the Hinata before him had dark circles around his beautiful amber eyes, which were no longer shining lively but turned into a dull, depressing brown. His face was pale, cheeks stained with fresh tears, some of which still clung to his eyelashes. He tried to hide the small sniffles, but it was no use because everyone could clearly see he'd been crying.

Remembering the infectious laughter and joy from before, Tetsurou knew that he never wanted to see Hinata like this. And thankfully, today he was holding the key to stop it.

"Hi," he said, a grin coming onto his face as he reached into his pocket to pull out the big emerald he'd been carrying with him ever since last week. "I guess this is what you're looking for?"

Hinata's mouth opened a little and he stared at the stone in Tetsurou's hand as if it was an illusion that he could snap out of with a blink of an eye. Tetsurou almost believed he went into shock. He was half prepared to catch Hinata if he fainted, but thankfully it wasn't necessary, because then Hinata moved. And when he moved, _he moved_.

He bolted right towards Tetsurou, at top speed, and without slowing down crashed into him. Completely unprepared for it, Tetsurou tripped under the weight and force of the impact, both of them falling down to the concrete floor. Tetsurou groaned, his ass would be bruised for sure.

Hinata was in his lap, arms around Tetsurou and crushing him in a bear hug. He was warm and soft and smelled of summer, almost like that clearing in the forest, as if the remnants of the solstice magic were still clinging to his skin. Tetsurou draped his arms around Hinata's small back and returned the hug.

"Prince charming to the rescue," he joked and the huff of relieved laughter that fanned against his neck was all the thanks in the world he needed.

When Hinata finally pulled back from him, his face was regaining colour and a small smile was playing on his lips. Tetsurou grinned at him, handing him back the crystal. Hinata took it carefully, almost as if he was afraid it'll reject him, but the crystal brightened as soon as it touched Hinata's skin, sparkling in happiness. Amber eyes lit up and Tetsurou's heart sped up its beating.

"Thank you," Hinata said in a soft whisper, his voice a bit raspy from crying. He clutched the emerald in his hands protectively. "Thank you so much, Kuroo."

Masking his rapid heartbeat with a laugh, Tetsurou winked at Hinata. "Anytime for you, Cinderella."

Whatever he was expecting to happen, he wasn't sure. Maybe a punch to the shoulder, a snort, a giggle. What he definitely wasn't prepared for was the pink blush that dusted Hinata's cheeks, or the amber eyes that gleamed over with a sheen of embarrassment and looked away from him shyly in such an adorable way Tetsurou stared at him speechless. He remembered himself in a second and had to turn his head to the side as well, because with his heart thumping in his chest wildly and the heat spreading over his own cheeks, he realized that he might like Hinata's flushed face just a little too much.

And that realization made his blood boil in a way he had never experienced before, but when their eyes met, a shy amber against burning gold, Tetsurou smiled. It was fresh, it was new. Hinata made him feel like he was living his life from scratch and Tetsurou wanted it all.

**Author's Note:**

> wow reading that again made me really embarrassed holy fuck it's so corny yxcmhyb I'm sorry


End file.
